Winton Train Guest Speaker - Elly Evans

Thomans Graumann with
Christina Classen and her 2 children,
Jordan and Issac.

Yesterday morning we had the joy of being able to listen to Thomas Graumann about his survival of the Holocaust. Thomas was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia. He grew up with his mom, dad, younger brother and later his step dad. His family was jewish but they didn’t practice, they only lit the candles at Honoka. When Hitler started his wrath against the Jewish people, Jews were forcibly converted, expelled from more than 
80 cities, and killed.

Hitler’s Plan

• Identify the Jews 
• Isolate them 
• Emigrate them 
• Finally Exterminate the Jews

Jews were killed by shooting, hanging, CO, CO2, and Zyklon B.On November 10th, 1938 when Thomas and his mother were going to a play they saw horrible things happening in the streets. Buildings were being burned, businesses were looted and people were killed. People know this night as “Kristallnacht.” Thomas then spoke about the day that his mother put him on the Winton train that would take him to Scotland. His brother was ill and was going to wait for the train that would come next month. 

When that day came for the next train they found out that there wouldn’t be a train because the borders were sealed. Thomas was safely in Scotland, learning English by then with a good christian family. He started to become a follower of Jesus Christ and taught people to read and write. Thomas was 3rd to last on the final train. His number was 652. He is thankful every day that he could be on that train. 

Thomas has been happily married for 52 years, with his two adopted children and his 10 grandchildren. “I was saved.” Thomas spoke these words as he spoke about how all the remaining family that stayed in Czechoslovakia had been killed in the concentration camps. “If you think a dead Jew is better than a living Jew placed in a Christian home. That’s your problem not mine.” One of Thomas’s favorite quotes is one by Winston Churchill, “Never, Never, Never give up!”